Major League Soccer Visits the National Aquarium!

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Earlier this week, the National Aquarium welcomed Major League Soccer to Baltimore during a special event in the Marine Mammal Amphitheater. The event was a preview to the 2011 Major League Soccer SuperDraft, which is being held at the Baltimore Convention Center January 13 and 14.

Six top 2011 MLS SuperDraft prospects pose at the amphitheater, photo by Jose Argueta/MLS (Photo above).

It is often said that dolphins are as smart as humans, so the soccer pundits at Major League Soccer asked the National Aquarium if one the dolphins would be able to predict the top pick of their 2011 draft.

Six top SuperDraft prospects, as selected by MLSsoccer.com, were invited to the Aquarium on Wednesday afternoon. They toured the exhibits and enjoyed a dolphin show, and then asked Chesapeake, one of the Aquarium’s 9 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, to predict which one of them would be chosen as the first round pick.

To help Chesapeake with her prediction, each prospect kicked a soccer ball with their name written on it into the pool. She was then asked by her trainer to select one of the balls and bring it back to the center of the pool. Chesapeake interacts with soccer balls and other toys every day, so she was excited to play along!

The ball she chose, which became her prediction, belonged to A.J. Soares, a University of California defender from Solana Beach, California. Unfortunately, A.J. was not the first pick in today’s draft, nor were any of the other players who visited the Aquarium. A.J. was, however, the first of the six players who visited the Aquarium to be drafted. Turns out that Chesapeake made a great prediction!